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Lagos-Ibadan expressway will be completed in 2021 – Julius Berger

The contractor handling the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway project,
Julius Berger has said that the project will be completed by 2021.

The Operations Manager, Julius Berger, Thamm Olaf, told the
Senate Committee on Works, led by its Chairman, Kabiru Gaya, on Sunday, that
the project, which was to be completed in 2017, was stalled due to paucity of
funds and the recent expansion, Punch Metro reports.

Gaya and other members of the committee, who were on an
oversight visit to road projects in Lagos, however, stated that they were not
happy about the slow pace of the work, despite the efforts and funds that had
been put into it.

He said the Federal Government had spent a lot of money on
the road and others across the country and had moved cost of road
infrastructure from N500bn to 600bn in the 2019 budget to accommodate more road
construction.

“The project is good as it will take care of traffic but we
are not happy with the speed and so we expect the contractor to increase the
pace of work, even though there were amendments on the road,” he said
Gaya also told journalists that the contractor of the Tin Can Island Truck
Park, Borini Prono, had said that the project, expected to ease traffic
congestion around Apapa Wharf, would be completed in December.

He said the project had reached 97 per cent completion while
construction of the shoreline, recently added to protect the park, had
commenced.

He said:

“When we visited this site in 2015, the construction was
less than 70 per cent; now it is 97 per cent because money has been paid and we
insist that it must be finished by December.

“We have also said that the facilities are not good enough
for a trailer park; there should be more toilets, restaurant and even a small
clinic.”

The committee also inspected the Apapa Wharf Road, a
two-kilometre concrete road being constructed by AG Dangote and expected to be
completed before the end of the year; the Leventis Bridge, which is expected to
be completed by Julius Berger by the first quarter of 2019; and the Third
Mainland Bridge, which would be partially closed in 2019 for rehabilitation.

Other roads inspected during the tour were the
Ikorodu-Sagamu Road being handled by Arab Contractors with a completion date of
2021, and the 1.5km NNPC Mosimi Access Road, which had been stalled by a debt
of N1bn.

Although the Lagos-Badagry Road project was not inspected,
the Federal Controller of Works, Adedamola Kuti, however, stated that the
Federal Executive Council had re-awarded the contract and work would commence
soon.